Home Is Where the Heart Is
by thallata
Summary: Wilhelm is trying to reconnect with his family after he broke free from the Lich King's grasp, but will his family be able to forgive him for what he'd done as Arthas' loyal servant? Will he be able to forgive himself? Rated M to be safe, due to violence
1. A Long Walk

This story is set in WoW during the very start of WotLK. I have slightly changed the timelines for events, mostly by expanding them out so that events take place further apart, but eventually it will be be more AU. Thanks for reading, and feedback is welcome. Later chapters will be more action, less brooding.

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><p>I trudged slowly through the towering woods, blessedly alone. For the first time in years, <em>decades<em>, I couldn't feel the weight of another mind overlaying my own. I relished the freedom to choose my own thoughts, my own path. True I could distantly feel my breth… former brethren, but on the whole my thoughts were my own. I suppose technically I could also feel a dull presence from my blade, but distance had muted her litany to a quiet mental grumble.

I had left my runeblade, my armor and my mount in Barrens out of respect for the Night Elves, as it had seemed unlikely that re-creating the Dead Scar would endear me to anyone. Unfortunately this meant I felt the full crushing weight of all the life in the Ashenvale woods on my own. I had tried to explain this sensation to Tirion while I was… recovering I suppose is the best term for it. I thought of it as life-sense. I have no idea what anyone else calls it; I have never been comfortable talking about it.

It wasn't quite a smell, sound, or temperature, but something like all of those combined. It was as though even the smallest living thing gave off a feeling of what I used to think of as heat. Perversely this "heat" feels like it only burns by stealing away the warmth from within you, leaving you colder. At the same time it's like someone has shoved something unpleasant under your nose, while whispering in your ear, and brushing up against your skin. Lastly, this maddeningly faint taste of something absolutely divine fills your mouth, flooding you with hunger. The effect that is caused by a small amount of life is deeply annoying.

The feeling generated by a forest this size is absolutely maddening. It's an all-over sense of unbearable pressure, of deafening noise, of pure wrongness; it filled me with hunger and rage.

So far, I have found nothing that will totally fill that aching void. Not one life, not a thousand lives. The hunger is always, always, there, but I have gotten better at resisting it. Still, it took more of my concentration then I would have liked to keep from reflexively destroying everything around me. I would have _liked_ not feeling this at all, but over the years I had almost gotten used to it. With enough time one can get used to almost anything I suppose.

I had _almost_ gotten used to not sleeping.

I had _almost_ gotten used to never being warm, to not even being able to remember what being warm felt like.

I had _almost_ gotten used to the sharp and irrational hatred I felt for anything still alive, to the burning rage that a peaceful forest like this brought forth…

In the past when traveling through such an appallingly verdant place, being surrounded by other unlife had helped insulate me from this sensation. When on my own, I would have attempted to blunt my life-sense by gorging myself on the lives of others, as feeding enough would bring me closer to a semblance of life. Failing that I would at least have had my plague-soaked armor to mute it; the tiny undead bacteria are capable of warping my life-sense enough to be tolerable. I had occasionally traveled bereft of all these protections before, but this was the first time I had done so without even having my thoughts filtered through the icy film of… The film of someone I was attempting to keep from thinking about. Though I was hardly likely to avoid it in my upcoming visit.

After all what was I going to be able to say? "Yes, sorry I was gone for the last 20 years, oh and I'm a little undead, I might have been the Eboncloak, I sort of loyally and fiercely served the Lich King, and I kind of killed a lot of people including our father but I really don't want to talk about any of that." I am sure that would go over even better then my attempted reunion with Alex. Alexander. Idiot little brother. I had known that was not going to go well from the start, but I had needed to try. At least no one had actually died.

I had little reason to suspect that my reunion with my sister was going to go any better, but I still hoped. Alex had always been quick to anger, I think. It was hard to remember anything specific about most details of my life, but I was fairly sure I remembered that Leia was gentler, and certainly less full of rage. Or had been two decades ago.

I sighed at the woods around me, trying not to resent the very existence of them, trying to remember how to enjoy myself, trying not to take too many unnecessary lungfuls of this life-filled air. I think I used to like walking like this. In theory it was a lovely morning, with the sun shining and the flowers blooming, not that I could really appreciate either. Soon I should be coming up on the path that branched off for my sister's house. Well technically for her and her husband's house. I had been shocked when I learned Leia had married, and to a Druid at that. It was still a struggle for me to remember that the sister I saw would not be the same little girl from my memories.

I gave even odds that her husband Ireclaw was going to try and kill me, _again_, regardless of the pardon I carried. Certainly I had given him no reason to love me during the war, and he didn't seem like the type to forgive easily. Well, I wouldn't worry about that; I wasn't coming out to this reeking armpit of the world for him. After walking over a small bridge, I spotted the winding road that led further into the woods and allegedly to my sister's cottage.

While I wasn't looking forward to meeting her husband again, I was lucky that his druidic lifestyle had kept his home out here, and not in Astranaar proper. While the news that the Death Knights of the Ebon Blade were being accepted back into the Alliance was making rounds, I think I had beaten it to this particular part of the world. Though, unlike most of the other death knights, I hadn't joined the Ebon Blade. Or the Alliance. For now, for a little while, I would be my own person, and then I would repay the debt I owed Tirion and the Argent Crusade. I would not abandon those who had helped me find the Light again. Unlike those younger death knights, I knew I couldn't quench my rage with vengeance. On reflection, there were few ways I was like most of the younger death knights. Or at least younger in unlife, all of them had actually _lived_ longer then I had.

I respected their cause, but I had lost enough of my existence to my King…

I meant the Lich King. Not my King. Frostmoune's teeth, old habits were hard to break. Sighing, I rewrote the sentence in my mind. I meant by the Light. Normal people swore by things like the Light and "my father's hammer." 20 years of word choice were going to be hard to change. 20 years of a lot of things were going to be hard to change.

I shook my head trying to clear it. This paladin-sanctioned journey of healing wasn't going as well as I had hoped. I had crossed over to Kalimdor via Ratchet, as I was trying to avoid major cities, which had failed miserably in terms of avoiding people. With the Horde and the Alliance both throwing all their ships at Northrend, the Goblin boats were more crowded then ever. I had spent the entire voyage locked in the back of the cargo hold for "my own safety" by the crew. It took 5 days to make the crossing and I was restricted enough in my movements that a relatively thick film of ice had covered me by the time we arrived. I spent 120 mind-numbing hours crammed in with the boxes without light, or air and with few distractions. With nothing but my runeblade for company. Crimsonrime is unpleasant company at the best of times, but with no other stimuli her oily suggestions of "What will it matter if you kill one or two of them," and "If only you make them bleed, your pain will stop" had reached new levels of annoyance. I had not been sorry to leave her driven into the side of a mountain on the border of the wood.

I had been somewhat more regretful to leave Hope. My lieg… Arthas never stopped mocking my choice of name for my mount. I had usually replied that Invincible was hardly the best in Scourge names for a horse either, certainly not compared to Bloodmist or even Thass' mount Dusk. This would inevitably lead to Arthas stalking off, irritated as always to be reminded of anything he held over from life. Yet he never renamed his horse. No one else would even dare mention such a thing to Arthas, but save for Kel'Thuzad, no one else would willingly talk to him either. Though since he had become the Lich King, he was much less enjoyable to tease. In fact, he…

As I was thinking of him, I could feel the Arthas reaching for his wayward commander's mind. A thin film of ice began forming on the path despite my efforts to not draw heat from my surroundings. I could feel the beginnings of his whisperings as it grew colder and colder. Frost had formed on the leaves overhead and it seemed the color was being drained out of the world as the plants around me started to die. Quickly I tried to clear my mind of him.

I thought of Tirion, and what I had rediscovered of the Light. I thought of my brother and sister, and of the love I used to have for them. I concentrated on what I could recall of light and warmth and traced the runes for "Light's grace" and "Light's protection" that I had drawn on my chest with blessed sky-iron. Slowly I felt the glow of the Light begin to fill me, calming my mind and muting the Lich King's whispers. I felt Arthas' specter flee my mind, even as my hands began to glow with the soothing white Light. And then slowly the Light edged from pleasant to hot to searing pain. My concentration was shattered and I watched my hands crack and ooze foul looking fluids.

Shortly though, the lesions closed and abruptly I realized I was still drawing the life out of the plants around me. I forcibly stopped myself, and the temperature slowly rose. I had channeled the light for slightly more than a minute that time. Apart from resisting temptation, practicing my Lightcalling had been almost all I had done on the trip here, and my personal best was still only around 3 minutes. Even then there had been burning; I had just ignored it longer. Tirion was hopeful about my progress, but I was doubtful this trick would be useful for anything other then driving back Arthas' seeking mind.

"Which you wouldn't have to keep doing if you didn't keep thinking about him," I muttered to myself.

I suppose it was also possible the Light would be useful for convincing Ireclaw I had changed, as almost no servant of the Lich King could wield it. Though the burning it caused would probably only show him how much I hadn't changed at all.

I looked around at the circle of lifeless forest that extended out a yard from me. While it was much smaller then it would have been if I had worn my arms and armor, it was still big enough that it was certainly going to be noticed by someone as attuned to nature as Ireclaw. Well, dawdling would mean that he would face me here, instead of somewhere where witnesses would help me keep myself from killing him. I started walking again, hoping to avoid conflict until I actually arrived at least.

According to the map I was close; the house should be just around the bend coming up. My dread, which I had been doing a fair job of ignoring, grew exponentially at being so close to my goal. True it was the memory of my siblings that had allowed Tirion to help me, but just because I remember loving them doesn't mean anything now. Certainly it had no bearing on any feelings they might have had for me, or if we could ever reconnect. Sighing I considered whether or not I was even capable of love anymore.

This mounting fear of rejection I was struggling with is why most death knights and Forsaken never searched for any family they might still have. That and the fear that they wouldn't be able to overcome their hatred of the living, even for ones they used to love. I almost wanted to give up and return to Light's Hope, but I am no coward. My siblings were something I had dreamed of finding again for my entire bleak servitude, and my memory of them is the sole reason that Highlord Fordring decided I might be worth saving. I knew that the fact I remember so much of them from before I… died... is unusual, especially for an undead as old as I was. I actually could recall very little of life except for sporadic memories my family.

If I am honest, as scared as I am of their rejection, I am more terrified of not knowing if they can forgive me for what I have done. Still Alex's reaction to my reappearance was not exactly heartening. Though given he fell in with the Scarlet Crusade, the fact he stopped trying to kill me when I told him I was no longer with the Scourge was almost uplifting, even if he no longer considers us family. And I had only slightly injured him in self-defense. It probably wouldn't even scar. That had been another reason to leave my runeblade far away.

I cut my musings short as I finished rounding the curve and a tidy cottage in the traditional Night Elf style came into view. I looked at it hungrily for some sense that my little sister lived there. I realized I couldn't remember enough about her to know exactly what I was looking for. I saw small touches that were probably from her: a small shrine to the Light, a curtain in a pattern I could almost recognize, a certain color overlaid over the house that reminded me of her. As I entered the clearing around the house I could see where someone, probably Leighara, had planted flowers that had once grown in Lordaeron. There were several objects strewn throughout the yard, less visible to me then the plants teaming with life, but enough of a life-sense had rubbed off on them that they stood out.

Carefully I picked up one of the items nearer the front door. Part of me felt ashamed for this stalling tactic, but not enough to immediately continue. I held to object close to my face, squinting at it and smelling it. From what I could tell, it looked like a small hippogryph doll. It smelled like a child had last touched it: sticky and happy and free and so _alive_. The amount of color I could perceive in it's wings and beak implied it was well loved or at least more so then the greyer toys I could hardly tell from the stepping stones. I stood there with the toy held to my face for a moment, trying to calm my nerves. I knew what it implied and was now even more terrified of actually reaching the house. Since I was so close to the house I could feel at least 3 beings inside, not the one or two I expected.

Where my life-sense of the forest was like a great weight, for sentient beings it was more localized, which thankfully made it easier to bear. I could feel one of them was much older in years and richer in life than the others and two of them had more focus then I would expect from an animal. None of them had the intensity of life that I would expect from a druid. I stared at the door in shock.

My sister, my dear little Leighara had children.

I was an _uncle_.

I felt an unexpected and intensely uncomfortable surge of joy at the thought. Joy was an emotion I had hardly felt since I died, and I was still not used to the sheer intensity of emotions when your soul was your own. Just as swiftly as the unbearable joy rose in me it was dashed by the much more familiar fear.

I fought the fear back down. Tirion and I agreed that I would take small steps with this. He had feared that I needed more distance from my… service before I tried to connect with anyone I had known while alive. But he had agreed that I would need help to throw off any lingering influences, and with everyone else needed in Northrend, I had few options.

The Lich King had no hold me if I didn't give him one, but my mind and soul had been his for so long. This would be the first step to secure my freedom: attempting to shore up the cracks in my soul. Most people would mean that as a metaphor; I meant it literally. When I had finally betrayed… When I resigned, Frostmorne had been plunged into my chest. Highlord Fordring had been with me, and he used the Light to rip my soul free of the blade. Most of it anyway. There were… complications, and to keep my soul, I needed help healing it. It would be difficult, but most worthwhile things are. Squaring my shoulders, I turned and faced the door.

My hand hovered above the door as I attempted to summon the willpower to knock. I lowered my left hand to my chest and traced the rune of Grace. I felt an echo of the Light fill me, and it did not burn. Reassured, I decisively knocked on Leia's door.


	2. A Warm Welcome

I held myself still as I heard Leia approach the door. The urge to flee was growing, but I would not give in to it. The knob turned, and a woman answered the door with a smile.

She looked nothing like the girl I remembered.

She looked exactly like the girl I remembered.

I stood there staring at her, forgetting to remember to breathe. She was older. Of course she was older, I scolded myself, people age. She was dressed in an outfit made mostly of leather and was taller then me now. Her blonde hair was much longer then it had been, and was gathered in a ponytail; it might have been darker then before, I couldn't be sure. I could see where life had left its marks on her face, in the tiny wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Her brilliant green eyes were the same; the tattoos around them were not. I could see a little of myself in her, and more of our father. I felt something strange as I looked at her.

"Hello, can I help…" she trailed off as she finally really looked at me.

"Scourge!" she screamed, and slammed the door in my face. I could hear her calling to her children inside.

I sighed and rested my head on the now closed door. I didn't exactly need to breath, but sighing was something I still indulged in. I could hear running towards the back of the house, and I could clearly hear the screaming of the two children. I considered going after them, but I didn't want to scare them even more. They faded from my senses as they entered the trees and were engulfed by them. I had turned around and was studying the clearing when something slammed into the back of my head.

I whirled around to see a small ashen owl circling. It landed on the roof where it spread its barred wings and screamed at me. I considered my options. I could leave, which might be dangerous for me, but safer for my family. I could pursue them, but it would almost certainly end poorly. I could remain here, hope that they returned and would be willing to hear me out. I heard the twang of a bowstring behind me as the owl flew at my head again. I ducked and felt an impact in my back.

Or apparently I could get shot full of arrows I thought, looking down to find a shaft sticking out through my chest. I turned to see my sister standing at the edge of the trees holding a bow, looking shockingly competent. I had assumed she would follow the path of the Light, as my brother had done. As I had failed to do. It seemed instead she had become a hunter.

"Wait, Leia," I implored as I raised my hands. "Leia, it's…."

I didn't get to expand on that as she put an arrow through my throat. This unfortunately made it difficult to explain anything, given that talking above a whisper would be hard. Her aim was good, but I was unsure what she was trying to accomplish. Had I been actually trying to kill her, it would have been pathetically easy, even alone and unarmed. She had nocked another missile, and frowning, appeared to realize that arrows alone were unlikely to stop me. She scowled and shot again anyway, this time at my leg. I wondered what she was doing, unless she was just attempting to distract me while her children fled. I started walking towards her, arms still held up to appear less threatening, or as unthreatening as someone can be with three arrows protruding from them. I ignored the scream of a bird as it dove for me, which it turned out, was a mistake. The bird's scream shifted into a roar of rage and an enormous bear flattened me. It appeared she had been waiting for Ireclaw. I cursed this thrice-damned forest and it's ability to occlude my life-sense; much as I loathed it, I had come to relief on it in combat.

I attempted to get out from under Ireclaw, but the weight of his bear-form crushed my back into the turf. He had gotten my shoulder in his mouth and was savaging it, which also caused the arrows in my neck and chest to tear my flesh open even more. At least the shafts had snapped off in the back so it would be easier to remove them. I managed to get my legs under him and kicked, hard; even at full strength I was unlikely to hurt him with physical attacks. The kick lifted him enough that I could get out from under his white bulk, but it also ripped a huge chunk out of my shoulder. I scrambled to my feet a few paces away, drawing arrow splinters out of my wounds.

"Eboncloak," he growled, spitting out pieces of my flesh, "I knew you were perverted, but to come after my family…" he trailed off into incoherent snarls. I fought to keep a snarl off my own face in response.

He swiped at me as I circled around him, still trying to stay out of his range while not letting him get between me and my sister. He was fast though, and managed to rip open my leg with his ivory claws. I hurled myself backwards and landed badly on the mangled leg. I couldn't feel the pain, but it became more of an effort to hold together and not blindly lash out at him. Leia thoughtfully slammed another arrow through the same leg, bringing me down on my knee.

I could take a lot more damage, but after a certain point I wasn't going to be able to hold myself back, and then someone was going to end up dead. I decided that I needed to take the offensive if I had any hope of salvaging this situation. As Ireclaw reared up, I reached out and ripped the heat out of the air around him. Ice quickly grew up around his feet, and kept climbing higher. I pulled more and more heat out from around him until he was entirely encased in a crystalline prison. Snow began to fall in the clearing as Leighara screamed and shot at me again, this time missing.

Already I could hear the ice creaking around the druid; it wouldn't hold him for long. I turned and began to lurch towards her. Walking normally was impossible; my leg didn't want to bend so I had to drag it along behind me. My shirt and pants hung off me in tatters and the black ichor that served as blood was splattered around the clearing. In the back of my mind, I worried that it might still be full of the plague of undeath. In theory, channeling the Light purged it, but I hadn't tested that yet with a volume of blood this large.

Leia sent her owl at me again while reaching into her quiver for another arrow. I managed to keep myself from batting the bird out of the sky as it flew off with bits of my scalp in its talons. I was just a few feet away from her now and her shaking hands fought to nock the arrow. She succeeded as I drew to a stop just out of arm's reach. Her green eyes were wide and full of fear as she shakily drew the bow.

"Leia…" I whispered. It was hard to draw enough air in to talk loudly enough to be heard. I pushed one of my hands against my shredded throat and succeeded in getting more air into my lungs. "Leia, it's me, your brother," I wheezed.

I watched as her hands stilled. She looked into my eyes, keeping the bow level with my face.

"Alex?" she asked, puzzled.

"No, Will…" I didn't have time to say more, as with a thunderous roar Ireclaw broke free of the ice. I could hear him shaking off the cage I had made for him, and I knew shortly he would renew hostilities. I lowered my hand from my neck and reached out towards Leia. I was close enough to her that Ireclaw wouldn't risk charging me again, but he was still a danger.

"Will?" she gasped. I kept my eyes on Leia's face as she stared at me in disbelief. I could see her searching my face, comparing it to what she remembered. Two decades was a long time, and I had changed a lot since we had last seen each other.

"Wilhelm is dead," she finally replied, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. I watched fury settled over her face as she prepared to release the arrow.

"Yes, I am." I whispered.

"Will?" she asked again, incredulously this time. I watched the anger bleed out of her expression as her eyes grew wide. Abruptly, she came to a decision.

She lunged past my outstretched hand and pulled me into a hug, sobbing "I'm so sorry Will" over and over again into my hair. Her bow and arrow fell to the ground unnoticed. I stood paralyzed in her embrace. This was the first time I had touched someone who was alive while trying to not kill them; it was difficult. Everywhere she touched me felt like it was on fire, and I had to stop myself from pushing her away. Behind me I could hear the low reverberating growl of Ireclaw in his cat-form. Without even thinking I rotated on my good leg to place her between us.

"You plague-ridden coward, release her and face me!" Ireclaw snarled, "You may have escaped at Andorhal but you don't have your foul army here to save you this time."

I ignored him and slowly raised my arms on either side of Leia. As I tentatively hugged her back, I felt a searing emotion fill me. It was something I hadn't experienced in so long that I had forgotten what it felt like.

It was love, pure simple love.

Ever since I had died, I had only been able to remember that I loved my family, but not what it had actually felt like. Now it all came back to me as I stood there hugging my sister. I felt my eyes prickle with what I hoped were tears. Though even as love filled me, so too did hunger, awakened at being so close to what had been food for the last 20 years. Carefully I pushed Leia back from me unwilling to risk her safety any further. I slowly stepped around her and addressed the druid.

"I didn't come here for you," I said as clearly as I could. Bubbles of blood rose in the gaping hole in my throat as I tried to speak.

"Liar," he seethed, crouching to pounce.

I straightened myself as well as I could and started gathering my power. The light snow continued to fall around me and I swiped my fingers into my ruined shoulder to gather some blood. Specks of blue the color of the Lich King's eyes began to swirl around me like unholy sparks. I was preparing to immobilize him again when Leia ran past me and knelt in front of him.

"Lorn," she pleaded, "stop. That's not the Eboncloak. He's my brother. Wilhelm. Remember, I told you about how he died…" she trailed off, reaching out a hand to cup Ireclaw's face. He shifted from cat to Night Elf, drawing Leia up beside him. He towered over her, his dusky purple skin looking alien against hers. He never stopped glaring at me, and even as an elf I could hear him growling.

"That," he spat, "is most certainly Eboncloak. I would not mistake the man who killed my brother."

In order to explain, I would have to fix my throat. I knew Ireclaw would disapprove, but I didn't care anymore. Leia and her husband were far enough away that I could safely steal the life from the forest around me. In order to heal my throat enough to talk clearly again, I carefully bled life out of the trees around me. I wiped my bloodied fingers around the hole in my neck and drew a rune of Dark Mending, imbibing it with the life I had borrowed. As usual I felt a slight tingling as new flesh grew and died. Around me leaves fell from the branches and turned to ash before they reached the now snow-covered ground. Ireclaw looked, if possible, even more furious.

"I didn't kill Desdriel, I failed to save him. There is a difference," I finally responded.

Ireclaw's fists tightened and his glowing white eyes narrowed. Leia looked at me, fear creeping back into her expression. She had expected absolute denial from me, but that was something I couldn't give her. I sighed, and attempted to be more placating.

"I am truly sorry for what happened. That I let your brother die. That I fought you when you tracked me down at Andorhal. In the Plaugelands. _But I did not have a choice_."

I slowly reached down to the satchel at my side, which had mostly managed to not get ruined. I pulled out the scroll that King Varian Wrynn had given me and held it out towards them. It was lightly flecked with my blood, and somewhat rumpled, but still looked official.

"Highlord Tirion Fordring has forgiven me for what I have done. King Varian Wrynn has pardoned my crimes. I no longer serve that foul abomination that stole my life, my mind and my soul from me. For the first time in twenty years I am _free_." As I finished the soft glow of the Light shone from the exposed runes on my chest.

"Here druid, proof," I said gesturing with the scroll. Ireclaw just stood there, but Leia slipped out of his grasp and walked over to me.

"Oh, Will…" Leia said as she reached out to take the parchment, letting her gloved hand brush mine. I saw her try not to flinch from the contact. She unrolled the scroll and showed it to her husband. She glanced at it, but mostly she just stared at me looking like she was going to cry again. I looked away from her, and the Light around me died.

Ireclaw read through the proclamation. Three times. He then rolled it up with scarcely concealed fury and threw it at my feet.

"They may have forgiven you, but I will not," he hissed. "And Felflames take you if you think I am going let you anywhere near my family." He paused and attempted to collect himself.

"As you are a fellow member of the Alliance, it seems I must allow you to depart. Remain here, or approach my wife and children again and I will destroy you," he finished coldly.

"Lorn, that is not your decision to make," my sister stated. She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned him to face her. "He's my brother. He gave his life to save Alex and me, and I owe him every breath I've taken since. I won't let you just send him away like some sort of monster."

"He _is_ a monster!" Ireclaw sneered.

I couldn't disagree with him.

"No, he _was_ a monster. I don't know if he's still the brother I remember, but I know damn well that no Scourgelord would seek out family like this. Wilhelm just stood here taking our attacks, hardly even defending himself. I can see through his chest! Are those the actions of the Scourge that you know?" she sighed and continued, "We've both lost so many people to that traitor Arthas, and you know not one of them went willingly. That is his greatest crime: he takes our loved ones and makes them turn against everything they stood for. I know that you had history with him, but he isn't that thing anymore, he's my brother again. People change. Please…"

"Yes, people change," he admitted. "But I am not convinced he's a person. What if this is some sort of ploy to get us to lower our guard so he can slaughter us?"

I considered how to respond to this. It's true that in the past, that was exactly the sort of thing I would have done. Pointing out I could slaughter them regardless would not help my case either. I didn't know what I could say to convince him, but I was determined to try. I started with the truth, for once not having to make an effort to swear by the right thing.

"I swear by the Light that my sole intention here is to get to know the sister I left behind."

Ireclaw snorted at that, and my sister gave a tiny smile.

"The Light. Clearly since you used to be human and you swear by the Light you must mean it," he said sarcastically. I was beginning to regret not freezing him again instead of trying to explain.

"Please," my sister repeated putting a hand on his arm. Ireclaw considered me again, for the first time more thoughtful than furious.

"Why," he demanded.

"Because I remembered Leia. Even when I had forgotten almost everything about life, I remembered her. She helped save me from what I had become. I wanted to thank her for that, and to see if she could help me be… not Eboncloak. More… human."

He looked down at his wife and a silent communication appeared to pass between them before he sighed and kissed her. He then turned and addressed me.

"These are the rules. One, you will not meet our children, ever. Two, you will not defile any more of this forest while you are here. And three, if anything happens to Leia while in your company I will _unmake_ you," he stressed.

I looked quizzically at him, surprised by his change of heart.

"The only reason I am agreeing to this," he continued, "is because if I do not, I know Leia will just work around me. I made this mistake only once, before I knew the lengths to which she would go for that which she believes in. I know better then to force her away from something she cares about. She is her own person, and I would not change her for the world." He paused before adding, "I have known Forsaken who serve the Argent Dawn, and I acknowledge that it is possible for even the undead to grow. If that is truly your goal, it is my duty as a druid to encourage it. I will take our children to my cousin's home and we will return tomorrow at noon, by which point you will be gone."

Having finished his speech, his form blurred into a hawk and flew up to perch on Leia's shoulder. He nuzzled her, and glared at me. I realized he was waiting for a response.

I nodded at him and said, "Yes, I agree to your terms. I swear it by the Light."

If it was possible for a bird to roll its eyes he did so, but nodded in acknowledgement. He then launched himself from Leia's shoulder at my head. I stood my ground and he cleared my hair by only inches. He gave a shrill cry as he circled upwards into the sky, out of sight.


	3. Healing, if You Can Call it That

I was now all alone with Leighara, moderately injured, and absolutely ravenous. This was possibly not my best idea.

I searched desperately for something innocuous to talk about. I hadn't needed to make small talk since before I died. Well technically, I had while infiltrating various settlements, but I had aggressively prepared intricate scripts for those forays. I had stopped myself from planning this trip in the same way, attempting to distance myself from the Eboncloak as much as possible. Given I had been him, that was going to be quite difficult, but I could at least attempt to _act_ differently.

"What did you need to sneak around Ireclaw for?" I asked before she could bring up one of the five hundred things I didn't want to talk about.

She chuckled as she walked across the clearing towards me. Irrationally, I backed up a step before I could stop myself. She looked at me, and raised her hands as if in surrender and continued more slowly. I forced myself to take a small step back towards her as she answered me.

"Oh, that. When I first came to Kalimdor, after," an ominous pause here, "After. I had met Lorn's cousin Kerwyn and idolized her instantly. She was this 8-foot tall, amazingly talented huntress. I told Lorn what I wanted more then anything was to be a hunter like her. He laughed at me, and explained how humans are no good at anything that required stealth or patience." She snorted in amusement. "I was furious with him more a year after that. I barely even spoke to him. And while he was off doing 'druid things' with the Argent Dawn, I worked with Kerwyn on learning the art of hunting. When he came back that summer, I snuck up behind him and landed an arrow right next to his ear. Needless to say rather then admitting I had managed to surprise him, he launched into a speech about 273 rules of bow-safety."

She reached me and crooked one of her arms. The little owl that had been attacking me earlier ghosted down to land on her leather glove. It leaned over and preened her hair, chittering happily.

"This is Riley, I raised him from a chick," She proudly stated, for all the world like she was trying to show off for her big brother again. She tried to offer the owl to me, but he hissed menacingly and I decided not to lose any more skin to him. The owl also seemed happy with this result, and nibbled on the gauntlet until Leia gave him a hunk of raw meat. I tried to pretend I didn't find it appetizing.

"How did you end up with _Lorn_ anyway?" I asked before I could stop myself. It was a foolish question; while I didn't know the particulars, the general situation was going to have to touch on things I had been hoping not to remind her of.

One of the first things Kel'Thuzad had made me do was go after my family. I had fought him tooth and nail, but as his command was backed by the Lich King's voice, I had no choice. It was easier to fight than when Arthas was my King, but I still ended up obeying in the end. My father had sent Leia and Alex away days ago, so he faced me alone armed only with his war hammer and the Holy Light. I remember the fight well, better than I remember anything about my father from when I was alive. I remember his wounded brown eyes, the color mine used to be. I remember being confused and enraged at the sensations this man, the one who had raised me, was giving off. I remember his pleading with me to not do this, to just let the Light back into my heart. I remember how much the Light burned where he struck me.

Most of all I remember when I slid Crimsonrime into the gap between his breastplate and his arm. I remember the shocking feeling of fulfillment and pleasure as he bled out on my blade. His was the first life I had taken in my long service. It had bought Leia and Alex a longer head start, and in fact I lost their trail because of it. It had done nothing for me but cement my damnation. I had given up for a long time after that, a very long time.

Leia looked away from me, but still answered, "I met him after… after father… died," she swallowed and continued, still not meeting my eyes, "Alex and I were given to the Silver Hand, as wards. Since father had served them so well, they felt they owed his children a chance. When they formed the Scarlet Crusade from the, uhh, remains of the Silver Hand, Alex and I both wanted to join, and help destroy the Scourge."

"I can hardly believe Ireclaw would have been involved with the Scarlet Crusade," I said, attempting to steer the conversation away from places I wasn't ready for.

"Oh, no, I met him around fifteen years ago, when I quit that bigoted pack of Light-blinded zealots and joined the Argent Dawn. I ended up being assigned to his patrol, and in retrospect it was love at first sight. I know it sounds silly, but when I met him, I just felt whole for the first time since mother died.

"He was understandably hesitant about my affections, but he agreed that the Plaugelands were no place for an 17-year-old, so he offered to let me live with his family. I was a brat, I'm sure, and he was as stodgy as only a 300 year old trying to deny his attraction can be. After the Kerwyn incident, we bickered every time we were together for more then ten minutes. After 8 years of this, his family had had enough, and just sort of arranged everything. One day we were just ushered to a service at the Moonwell. It was the first time I had seen him speechless," she smiled.

She shook her wrist to release Riley, and offered me her hand. I hesitated, not wanting to take it while I still needed, for lack of a better term, food. Being this injured was more irritating then anything else, but I didn't like to leave gapping holes in my body for several reasons. The primary ones being, of course, plague containment and mobility issues, things like not wanting to be filled with mold were secondary.

Most undead can't heal themselves, but I had learned a few ways it could be done. All of them unfortunately required a store of _living_ power to draw from and I had sworn not to "defile" the forest anymore, so I needed an alternative. I used to carry enough life within me for just this purpose, but since I had left the Scourge, I had stopped feeding from the living. If pressed I could use the energy contained in blood, or if truly desperate, I could harvest pain and fear. Though the latter would be very difficult without my blade.

My sister dropped her hand and looked away, since I had not offered mine in return. I took this opportunity to check my satchel to see if any of the vials Tirion had give me had survived the conflict. I found one of the three still intact. I bent down and retrieved my scroll from the melting snow and crammed it back in my bag.

"Won't you come inside? I have some bandages, and I can get you something to eat," she eventually offered, sounding slightly hurt.

"I would like that," I said, trying to be encouraging. I refrained from correcting her about food. It was unlikely she would have anything that would be useful for me to consume, but I could safely eat more or less anything so I could at least manage to be polite. Mostly, I wanted some privacy to close my wounds, and it would be easier to do so in the house.

"Alright…" she said and led me towards her home. I followed her at my top pace, which was currently something around that of an elderly tortoise. I was missing a lot of my muscles on my left side, and it was taking a lot of willpower to use my leg at all. Leia noticed and slowed her pace to match mine. It took a long time to reach the door, and my sister kept shooting guilty looks at me.

"You shouldn't feel bad, you were just trying to protect your family. And it doesn't really hurt," I said, wanting to reassure her.

She stopped to unlock the door and stared at me in disbelief.

"I could stick my hand all the way into your torso, I can clearly see your tibia, and you're covered in blood. How does that not hurt?" she asked incredulously, and then immediately looked even more ashamed.

"Well, the short answer is I can't really feel physical pain," I replied, leaning against the front of her house for support.

"And the long answer?" she asked, clearly curious.

"I can feel my injuries, but physical damage like this doesn't really register when compared to something like Light-based attacks. Or fire. I feel… discomfort I suppose. But this is mostly just an annoyance because it restricts my movement."

"Wow… It must be nice, not to feel pain."

"I'm in _constant_ pain. It's just not physical pain," I responded resignedly.

"Oh," Leia said in a very small voice and finally opened the door. She gestured for me to precede her inside. I pushed off the wall and carefully stepped into her home. Immediately I felt the luminous blessing of Elune and the brighter blessing of the Light slide over me. I was glad that Leighara and husband had maintained the spiritual protections on their home; they would ensure that if I thought of Arthas while in the house, I would be protected from his mind.

I looked around the main room feeling lost. There was a pair of couches, a table and several small plants and I could see a few doors that led off the main room. Hesitating, I stood just inside the doorway unsure if I should explore further. I was afraid to touch anything since I was still covered in blood, and even the parts of me not bloody were hardly clean. Instinctively, I inhaled deeply, trying to take in the many new scents; the two children stood out in particular. I dimly felt something alive as I heard a growl to my right. I turned to find an irate white wolf.

"Hush Stella," Leia scolded, "Go outside, shoo. Sorry, in all the commotion, I had forgotten she was still in here."

The wolf edged past me, still growling, and fled into the clearing outside the house. Leia pointed at a door in the far wall and said, "That's the bathroom. There's a robe in there you can wear while we try and bind your wounds. I don't care if they don't hurt, I am not going to let my brother limp around my house," she finished in a tone that implied arguing with her would be pointless. I wondered if our mother had also used that tone.

I limped past her into the bathroom and shut the door. If I was going to heal myself, I wanted to do it before she came back. The blessings muted both my hunger and life-sense, so self-control wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't want Leia to have to watch this. Even _I_ felt that the process of growing new healthy flesh only for it to immediately die was a perversion.

I quickly stripped off the remains of my clothing leaving me in only my underwear, which was happily only mildly bloody. I recovered the vial I had found earlier and uncorked it. The tantalizing smell of blood wafted out and filled the tiny room. I poured some of Tirion's blood into my left hand and carefully placed the vial on the edge of the sink.

I reached down and with my right hand drew a crimson border around the ragged tear in my leg. Once I finished, I dug around in it to remove the remaining arrow pieces. I stood and repeated the process around the hole in my chest and the remains of my left shoulder. Picking the vial back up, I brought it to my face and savored its bouquet. I greedily drank the remaining liquid and called the runes of dark mending to my mind: Shadow's Healing, Twilight's Embrace and Blood Mending. I felt the start of the healing as the door beside me opened.

I ignored Leia's indrawn breath as I concentrated on the runes needed to knit my flesh back together. Slowly I felt the healing cease and I looked down at myself. The wounds had mostly closed, but they were still noticeably oozing. I turned to hide my face from my sister as I licked the last of the paladin's blood from my left hand. I managed to restrain myself from sucking the last few drops off my fingers, though I failed at suppressing a shudder of pleasure as the healing resumed. After the tingling stopped I washed the last of the blood off my hands in the sink and put the empty vial with the arrow shards. Much of the blood near the injuries had been reabsorbed so I was fairly clean. Well, cleaner anyway.

"I didn't know the Scour… umm, undead could heal," she awkwardly finished.

"Most of them can't," I admitted, "The Light is hard to wield if you aren't alive, and the nature-based healing is completely impossible. To heal without using the Holy Light requires either a fair mastery of runecraft, or uhh…" I trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence. Any undead could heal if they consumed enough living flesh. That was why Forsaken cuisine featured rot and insects so heavily; they were the most socially acceptable way to consume living tissues. Well, and salad, but that seemed unlikely to catch on among the Horde.

I turned to face Leia and found myself staring up into her eyes. The green leaf tattoos around them perfectly matched their shade. She had washed off the blood that had been smeared on her face after she had hugged me. Hesitantly I raised one hand and traced the air over the bold lines of her markings. Emboldened, Leia reached out to brush the rune drawn over my right eye.

"When did you get this?" she asked, her fingers skimming the purple and black twisting design.

"When my… When Arthas started sending me out farther and farther from his influence on missions, I noticed I had regained some of my independence. He also began to watch me less and less as I stopped fighting him. I waited, and when I hadn't been able to feel him watching me for days I tattooed the rune onto my face," I hesitated but continued, "It means to see clearly. On that base I built a construct that basically means 'perceptions free of the influence of others.' It helped weaken his hold on me. Slightly anyways."

"And these?" she asked, gesturing to the silvery runes on my chest.

"Those are various runes of Light-working."

"I thought they looked familiar… Father had that one engraved on his mace," she pointed at the one traced on the scar over my heart.

"Yes. At'leiash, Light's Protection." As I said its name, the rune shone with the Holy Light. "I etched those after Highlord Fordring freed me. They help… ground me."

"Twenty years gone, and you still look practically like you did when you were 18," she sighed and pulled me into another hug.

"Funny, I don't remember my hair being this blue then," I tried to joke while forcing myself to return the hug. It still felt uncomfortable to touch her, but it was less unsettling than the first time.

She pushed away from me, but kept her hands on my shoulders. I watched her study me, comparing me to how I used to be. She was right, I hadn't grown since I died; this was hardly surprising. Not even my hair had really grown, though when it was cut or removed it eventually returned to this length. My hair had been the same dark brown as my father's, but death had turned it, my skin and my eyes varying shades of blue or grey. My eyes were the most different from before; they were the same eyes that the Lich King had, that all the Scourge had. They glowed the brilliant icy blue of a winter sky.

"No, your hair was more brownish. I remember you looked a lot like father looked…" she eventually said. She turned around and tossed me the robe that had been on the back of the door, revealing the mirror behind it.

"You should finish cleaning up, then put this on. I'll go make us some lunch," she finished and shut the door behind her, leaving me alone my reflection.


	4. A Delightful Lunch

I stood regarding my reflection in the glass. I looked like death; well, more so then usual. In the past, I have been better at hiding what I am, but right now my eyes were glowing so much I could barely even see the iris in them and my skin was a leathery sort of bluish grey. My teeth were covered with some kind of dark slime and I think I had missed a large splinter in my neck. My face was streaked with blood so dark it was actually black, as were large areas of my body that weren't near my previous injuries. I turned around and tried to use the mirror to check if I had closed the hole in my back. I was craning my neck and twisting around like an idiot when my sister opened the door again. Startled, I had to shoot an arm out to keep from falling over.

Leia didn't even try to hold back her laughter.

"Don't you knock?" I demanded, entirely embarrassed. This just caused my sister to laugh even harder. Suddenly a memory flashed into focus. In it a very similar scene was occurring, except I had been flexing in the mirror when my 10-year-old sister barged in. I had yelled, "Why don't you ever knock!" Abruptly I was thrust back into the present where my now 33-year-old sister was helplessly giggling at me.

I gave her a small smile and shook my head.

"Some things really don't change, do they?" I asked.

"Ahahaha… No, they don't," she took a deep breath to calm down, "I just wanted to know if there was anything in particular you wanted for lunch? Oh, and to let you know we keep this in here for trash," she said gestured at a container under the sink.

"Oh, thanks. Food. I'm happy to eat whatever you want to make," I hedged.

"I can make soup, or dumplings. There's some bread left from last night, and I think I have some cheese. Or maybe fish? I think I would have time to go fishing, if you wanted fish," she rambled, overwhelming me with options.

"Dumplings sound good, if they're not too much trouble," I said, picking a food more or less at random.

"I knew you would pick those, you always did love them."

"Did I?" I asked before I could stop myself. I hated not being able to remember things. My memories after death are all crisp and clear compared to the confusing muddle that makes up most of the memories from before. Occasionally I would get flashes like earlier, but mostly the harder I tried to remember, the less that was there.

The smile slipped off Leia's face as she was reminded that I both was and was not the brother she had lost.

"Yes, you did Will," she said, forcing a grin that didn't reach her eyes as she left and closed the door behind her.

I turned away from the Frost-eaten mirror and pushed back the curtain on the other side of the room. Behind it I found a sunken pool with slowly swirling water. I finished undressing and slipped into the water. I wondered what sort of Night Elf had indoor plumbing, then decided my sister was likely to blame for this.

I found the soap and used it to lather myself. I couldn't remember the last time I had bathed in an actual bath. Granted, I was more fastidious than many undead, but my efforts at cleanliness usually stopped at wading through a river when I was more covered in blood and filth than usual. Feeling adequately soaped, I entirely submerged myself in the water.

I let the slow current in the water carry away all the grime and blood of the last week or two. When I broke the surface a few minutes later, the edges of the pool were just starting to freeze. I scrambled out of the water and stood still, letting the water freeze on my skin before shaking off the ice crust. It seemed I was having a little trouble controlling my temperature, but so far it wouldn't be problematic unless Leia touched me for an extended period of time. I put my underwear back on, and picked up the robe.

I pulled it on and was almost engulfed by it; clearly it was Ireclaw's and it fairly reeked of his scent. It pooled around my feet and I had to roll the sleeves up so my hands could stick out. I felt ridiculous, but less so then if I tried to go out there in only my underwear. In retrospect, I should have thought to pack a spare change of clothes, but I hadn't expected the trip to be this… eventful. I washed the rags that my clothes had become in the sink, and left them to dry. Carefully, I deposested all the pieces of arrow into the trash, and whispered a brief blessing over them. I wasn't sure how much plague I carried these days, but I wasn't going to take chances where my family was concerned. The vial I put back into my bag. I drew out the gift I had brought for Leighara and considered whether or not she would actually want me to give it to her.

It was a necklace that our mother had given our father; he had been wearing it when I killed him. She deserved to have it but unless I delibratly misled her she would find out that I was the one who murdered him. I slipped the necklace into one of the pockets of the robe, opened the door and went out to join Leia. The light slanting through the windows showed that it was now sometime after noon; there was still enough time to try and gently bring up some of what I had been doing since I died. I padded through the main room, and found her in the kitchen area tucked off to the side. Her back was to me and she was busily folding dumplings. I watched her until she finished, almost enjoying the feeling of being in her prescence.

She turned around to get something and jumped when she caught sight of me. I smirked at her, amused at having repaid her for earlier.

"Don't do that!" she yelled, sounding genuinely scared. I suppose that an apparent Scourgelord was not the most reassuring thing to catch out of the corner of your eye, even one in a ridiculous bathrobe.

"I apologize, I didn't want to disturb you," I explained.

"Then you can go wait in the other room. These should be ready soon, I just have to fry them."

I returned to the bathroom, retrieved my bag and brought it with me out to the main room. In addition to the scroll, the gift and the emergency blood, I had brought with me a few books, my inscription kit and some maps. I settled down on one of her couches to read a dense tome about Light-based runes of binding while I waited. If there was one thing I had learned with the armies of the Scourge it was how to wait.

Eventually Leia joined me, bringing two heaping plates of dumplings and some tiny dishes of sauce and pickles. I stood up and helped her bring them to the little table near the couches. As Leia sat down opposite me, I picked up my plate and made a show of inhaling the aroma. I think my sense of smell had changed a lot after I died, or at least the intact memories I have from life don't have nearly the smellscape I was used to now. Unfortunately, much like my vision, smells were more weighty and noticeable if they came from something alive; to me the dumplings just smelled liked dead meat.

"They smell great," I lied. I picked one up, sauced it, and popped it into my mouth. "They taste good too," I said around a mouthful of dumpling.

Leia looked at me uncomprenendingly. I then realized that the dumplings must have been extremely hot. Well, it was too late to pretend now I suppose. I grimaced and picked up a dish of pickles and ate one; this earned me another look from my sister.

"You can't taste can you?" she hesitantly asked.

"Why do you say that?" I countered nervously. I didn't want to appear less human in my sister's eyes, though that ship had probably sailed when I was still walking around with most of my throat gone.

"You just ate a dumpling still the temperature of boiling oil, and an entire hot pepper…"

"I can't taste very well, but I can taste," I responded defensively.

"What do does the dumpling taste like to you?"

Rotting flesh.

"It tastes like a dumpling. More meaty maybe," I said, which wasn't entirely untrue.

"It's just based on what I've heard about Forsaken cuisine, I wasn't sure if the undead really had a sense of taste. I don't mean to push if you don't want to talk about it…"

"It's not that I don't want to talk about it." It was. "It's that it's not really the sort of thing that you want me to talk about while eating." An airtight excuse that would buy me another half-hour, maybe.

"I saw you were reading. As I remember, you weren't much for books… At least every time father tried to get you to study, you would try and get out of it," Leia abruptly changed the subject.

I figured this was one of the least damning things I had done while I served the Lich King, so I seized the chance to explain.

"I found that when I was idle, it felt like I was losing myself, sinking into the…" I paused to collect my thoughts, and tried again, "The Scourge, all their minds are connected, to the Lich King and to each other. If you let go, you can just submerge yourself, and let yourself just sort of dissolve into the Cold Dark. What's left is a soulless husk, a ghoul who will never be self-aware again. I was absolutely terrified of that happening to me. The first time I felt myself slipping deeper, I was willing to do anything to distract myself. Books were one of the things I could… enjoy without guilt. So I started picking up books, and reading them to fill time. I found out the cultists had a library of sorts, where they collected various tomes pertaining to necromancy, inscription, and shadow magics.

"I ended up becoming interested in inscription and rune-crafting, at first mostly as a way to improve Crimsonrime. So I took up the study of runes and helped design…. Helped design… things," I finished awkwardly. I had helped design better weapons and armor, as well as more efficient versions of the plague of undeath. I hadn't meant to contribute so much to the Scourge, let alone of my own volition, but at some point I had lost sight of what I was doing. I had tried so hard not to lose myself in the Scourge that instead I stood out, and became a focus for the shattered psyches of other undead to latch onto. I couldn't even say the Lich King had made me; I had done that to myself, and taken the first step to becoming a Scourgelord of my own free will.

"Crimsonrime?" Leia asked around a mouthful of food.

"She's my runeblade."

I answered the next question Leia was bound to ask so she could keep eating while the food was still hot.

"Runeblades, after… use, start to become aware. They aren't alive, exactly, but they consume life, and some of it collects over time. Crimsonrime is old, so she has something that approachs a personality. She's fairly vicious, and surprisingly hectoring."

"So, since I last saw you, you've become a scholar, found the Light, and even made a friend," Leia tried to joke, "Everything father wanted for you."

"All I had to do was die," I said, and irritably shoved another dumpling into my mouth. Speaking with my sister was slowly bringing back more flashes of my life. I remembered the conversation, if you can call it that, I had with my father after mother died. I remember yelling at him, about the Light. Now I realized that was when I gave up on the Holy Light, which in turn eventually led to me losing its protection from the plague.

"You know he wouldn't have wanted this for you. He would rather have had you alive and a warlock, than dead and everything he wanted. If he were still alive though, I am sure he would be proud that you managed to break free of the Scourge, and I know he would have been overjoyed you found the Light again," she stated with such absolute conviction that I was almost believed her.

I looked away, remembering my last fight with him. I decided I needed to give my sister the necklace, and pulled it out of the pocket of the robe. Glancing down, I looked at it and saw only a dull metal oval on a twisted chain. I threaded the chain over my middle finger and closed my hand around it. Brusquely I extended my clenched fist towards her, and opened it allowing the locket to dangle from my hand, swinging in front of her. A delicate tracery of frost was already working its way down the chain.

"He would have wanted you to have it," I said without preamble.

Leia stared at the necklace in disbelief and then seized it, ripping it off my finger. She opened it and stared at the portraits inside, suddenly bursting into tears. I watched her cry without saying anything, and ate the last of my dumplings.

"Where did you get this," she eventually managed to choke out through her sobbing.

I closed my eyes, remembering the last time I had seen my father. His brown eyes were full of betrayal, but the whole time he just kept pleading for me to forgive him for his failing to save me. A blinding rage had filled me, and I stopped fighting the urging of the Lich King. I shakingly drew an unneeded breath to calm myself and got a nosefull of my sister's rage and sorrow.

I was consumed with shame, but I answered her anyway.

"I got it from father. From his body. I didn't want to fight him. He wouldn't run. He… I couldn't stop myself. I killed him. I killed him, and I took his necklace and his hammer and left him there to rot. The Light saved his soul and I just left him there," I said with increasing anger. Most of it was anger directed at myself for failing to fight the Lich King, but some of it was because I was still bitter that the Light had saved my brother, sister and father from undeath, but not me. As I let my hatred grow, I could feel the rune of At'leiash start to burn.

Leia just stared at me in disbelief. I realized now that while she had intellectually known I had been part of the Scourge, she hadn't believed I had taken part in all that they had done.

"I'm sorry. I'll go," I said, rising to my feet. I picked up my bag and returned to bathroom to change back into my own things. The pants were missing the lower left leg, and the shirt left most of my chest and back uncovered, but I wasn't going to steal Ireclaw's robe. I walked back past my weeping sister to reach the front door. I watched her for a while as she let out great wracking sobs while cluching the locket to her chest. Standing still by the door, I waited for her to ask me to stay. The house was quickly filling with the scent of her absolute despair and an undertone of rage.

Shaking my head, I turned away and walked out of her home, softly shutting the door behind me.


End file.
